A defendant in a court trying a 2.1 million-dollar counterfeit money
case has testified that Indonesia's army chief had full knowledge of the
production of fake bills, a report said Wednesday.

"Mr. Darto knew very well that this fake money production was for
the interest of the Indonesian military and ... East Timor, "
defendant Ismail Putra, a retired army major, was quoted as saying by the
Jakarta Post.

Putra was referring to General Tyasno Sudarto, who was the chief of the
Indonesian Military Intelligence Agency (BIA) from January 1999 until he
was appointed army chief of staff in November last year.

"He sanctioned the process. The (former) BIA chief also visited
Yustinus Kasminto's house in Palmerah, West Jakarta, where the printing
was done," Putra, one of the 10 suspects in the case, told the court.

General Sudarto is considered as one of the country's reformist
generals who want to get the military out of its political role and make
it more professional.

His reform credentials are considered to have won him favour with the
government of President Abdurrahman Wahid, the country's first
democratically elected president.

The fake money, worth 19.2 billion rupiah (2.1 million dollars) was
produced between July last year and February this year.

The counterfeit bills are in 50,000 rupiah denominations, which bear
the likeness of former president Suharto.

Military spokesman Colonel Panggih Sundoro declined to comment on the
report.

The Indonesian military has been accused on arming and financing
pro-Jakarta militia in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony annexed by
Jakarta in 1976.

East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in August last year
was followed by a bloody rampage by the militias.

Another former general, Sumaryono, has also been named a suspect in the
printing and circulation of some 4.7 billion rupiah in fake bank notes.

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